The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1887-01-21
SCIENTIFIC FACTS.
What IL Searchers Into Science Find
For the People.

Sheep will eat more. be more con-
tented and thrive better on new
than an old range. Frequent change
of range for them is important at this
season Of the year.
Angora goats, which produce the
mohair of trade, are being introduced
to some extent in the West and South.
They have been bred in California
nearly forty years.
According to Engineering, German
chemist and metallurgist, DR.. Kes-
mann, strongly recommends the use
of treacle for forming small coal and
fine ore into solid briquettes, as first
proposed by Saltery. A mixture of l
to q per cent. of treacle was sufficient
to make coal dust of very lean Silesian
coal into good solid blocks which gave
a strong coke. Such blocks are also
excellent for gas-making. In SINH
lar manner blocks can be made of any
powdery iron ore such as some mag
netic ores and pyrites residues.
The Berlin Academy of Sciences
did not allow any German feeling
against the French to lessen their
praise of Mons. Chevreul, the distin-
guished chemist, in the message which
they sent him on attaining the age of
one hundred years. ave hold" they
said, "that your name should be in
scribed in one of the first places on the
list of the great men who have carried
the scientific glory of France to
the extremities of the EARTH" The
communication commended his work
in mineralogical and animal chemistry
and hygiene, as we'll as his more ce)e-
brated achievements in the investiga-
ton of colors
A Spanish shepherd, killed by light
ming recently, was the subject of a
scientific post norton to discover how
the electric bolt had done it's fatal
work. His eyebrows and eyelashes
were burned off, his eyeballs were dried
up, all his left side was scorched and
burned in spots down to the ankle,
while the right side of the body and
right leg were uninjured Serious as
those injuries were, none of them ap-
peared sufficient to have caused his
instant death. But as soon as the
breast was opened the cause of death
was apparent. The lungs were fright
fully congested, and the heart was
enormously dilated and filled with
coagulated blood. With all this dam
age to the man his clothes were very
little injured, the only traces of light
ming on it being small hole bored
through the rim of the hat, and a
slight singing of the shirt collar.
An interesting description of the
Amiltas tree of India, a species of
cassia, is furnished to the Gardeners
Chronicle by DIR. E. Bonavia, of
Etawah, who says that when in full
bloom it is one of the sights of the
British Indian fora. One specially
striking variety has leaves of maroon
bronze hue, when young; but the
leaves of all the older trees are green.
The blossoms are yellowstone a
fright canary color, others paler. The
fruit is long cylindrical dropping pod,
obtaining sticky pulp from which
cathartic medicine is made "The
world is secured says the writer, " for
some rare insignificant orchid, and
special houses are made for these
quaint plants, and here is a tree grown
from the seed with the greatest ease,
and which when in flower no orchid
could approach for splendor and pro-
fusion of bloom and is nothing thought
of. When in full flower it is perfect
cascade of canary yellow spray" The
doctor adds that an avenue of Amiltas
in bloom would be worth a trip from
any part of the world to see.
The effect of lightning in vitrifying
rocky material and producing what is
known as lightning holes is made the
subject of an interesting paper by
Prof. Brun, published in the Archipes
lie GeneDe. He and other investigators
have found these holes in the High
Alps at heights of from 1000 to 1900
feet above the sea level. Usually they
are found on SUBMITS. Sometimes the
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